dxpresto(8) System Manager's Manual dxpresto(8)
Name
dxpresto - graphically display Prestoserve state and statistics
Syntax
/usr/etc/dxpresto [ hostname ]
/usr/etc/dxpresto hostname options
Description
The command is an X Window System application that graphically displays a machine's Prestoserve state and statistics. The command uses a
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol to communicate with the machine being monitored. You use the command to provide general information
about Prestoserve and to help manage Prestoserve. Also, you can use the command to demonstrate the efficacy of the Prestoserve software.
Use the hostname variable to specify the machine that you want to monitor; the machine must be running the Prestoserve software. If host-
name is not specified and options are not specified, then localhost, an alias for the local machine that is running the Prestoserve soft-
ware, is used. You must specify hostname if you want to use options. The machine that you want to monitor must be running the daemon.
Also, if you want to be able to enable or disable Prestoserve on the machine, it must be running the daemon with the option.
Because is an X Window System application, your DISPLAY environmental variable must be set to a machine that is an X Server. For more
information, see
The window shows the following information:
o The field shows the name of the host that you are monitoring. You can type another host name in the field and hit the RETURN key to
monitor that host.
o The buttons show the Prestoserve state, either Enabled (UP), Disabled (DOWN), or Error (ERROR). If the machine being monitored is run-
ning the daemon with the option, you can change the machine's Prestoserve state to either Enabled (UP) or Disabled (DOWN) by clicking
on the appropriate button. You cannot click on the Error button; contact the server administrator or the server hardware Field Service
representative if the Error button is enabled.
o The slider shows the interval of time between Prestoserve queries, and it allows you to change that interval. When you invoke the com-
mand, the default is 5; therefore Prestoserve information is gathered every five seconds. For example, if you want Prestoserve queried
more often, move the slider to the left and click on MB1 until 2 appears; Prestoserve is then queried every two seconds.
o The field shows the time since Prestoserve was last enabled. The time is displayed in hours, minutes, and seconds. The total number of
seconds is also shown.
o The field displays the number of Kbytes of nonvolatile memory that the Prestoserve cache is utilizing. Note that Prestoserve can uti-
lize less than the default maximum size of its Prestoserve cache if you changed the cache size with the command.
o The graphics show the state of the Prestoserve backup battery system. An intact battery icon with the word ok indicates that the bat-
tery has sufficient power. An intact battery icon with the word low indicates that the battery's power is low. A broken battery icon
indicates that the battery is disabled. Prestoserve goes into the ERROR state when the backup battery power falls below a minimum
amount. Contact the server administrator or the server hardware Field Service representative if a battery is low or disabled.
o The buttons allow you to display or to not display graphs that demonstrate how the Prestoserve cache is being utilized.
o The buttons allow you to display or to not display the Prestoserve cache statistics table.
o The button allows you to exit from
o The error bar displays error messages for both Prestoserve and the command. For example, if the daemon with the option is not running
on the machine you are monitoring, then a message is displayed indicating that changes to Prestoserve operation are not allowed.
Some error messages, such as those indicating RPC communication failure, are displayed on the terminal from which you invoked the com-
mand.
If you display the graphs, the following is shown:
o The bar graph shows how the Prestoserve cache operations are distributed among the four Prestoserve buffer states: dirty, clean,
inval, and active. The vertical axis shows the maximum number of objects or disk blocks that the entire Prestoserve cache can contain.
The sum of the four bars is the total number of buffers used in the Prestoserve cache. Note that the size of the Prestoserve cache can
be changed by using the command.
o The trend line graph shows a recent history of the average number of writes per second over the time intervals that are determined by
the slider.
Each point in the horizontal axis represents a sample time interval as determined by the slider; the maximum number of samples that can
be shown is 210. When you reach the maximum number of samples, the graph shifts to the left so you can see at least the last 105 sam-
ples, which is half the maximum number of samples. If you choose 5 in the slider, Prestoserve is queried every five seconds; therefore
it takes 1050 (5 x 210) seconds to obtain the maximum of 210 samples.
The vertical axis shows the average number of writes performed per second within the sample time interval as determined by the slider.
For example, if you choose 2 in the slider, Prestoserve is queried every two seconds, and each point in the graph shows the average
number of writes performed within the interval of two seconds. If the graph shows that an average of 5 writes per second were per-
formed within two seconds, Prestoserve actually performed 10 writes within those two seconds. The calculation is:
5 writes
---------- x 2 sec = 10 writes
sec
If you change hosts, the graph displays a vertical line of dashes to distinguish the new host's information from the previous host's
information.
o The trend line graph shows a recent history of the average number of Prestoserve cache hits per second over the time intervals that are
determined by the slider. The Prestoserve cache hits represent the total number of clean and dirty read and write hits (blocks that
match blocks already in the cache).
Each point in the horizontal axis represents a sample time interval as determined by the slider; the maximum number of samples that can
be shown is 210. When you reach the maximum number of samples, the graph shifts to the left so you can see at least the last 105 sam-
ples, which is half the maximum number of samples. If you choose 2 in the slider, Prestoserve is queried every two seconds; therefore
it takes 420 (2 x 210) seconds to obtain the maximum of 210 samples.
The vertical axis shows the average number of hits performed per second within the sample time interval as determined by the slider.
For example, if you choose 10 in the slider, Prestoserve is queried every 10 seconds, and each point in the graph shows the average
number of hits performed within the interval of 10 seconds. If the graph shows that an average of 2 hits per second were performed
within 10 seconds, Prestoserve actually performed 20 writes within those 10 seconds. The calculation is:
2 hits
---------- x 10 sec = 20 hits
sec
If you change hosts, the graph displays a vertical line of dashes to distinguish the new host's information from the previous host's
information.
If you display the table, the following is shown:
o The Prestoserve statistics table is similar to the information that is displayed when you use the command. For each Prestoserve cache
read or write operation, Prestoserve increments an appropriate counter. The table shows:
The clean hits counter, which is the number of hits on the clean buffers
The dirty hits counter, which is the number of hits on the dirty buffers (each dirty hit represents a physical disk write that was
avoided entirely)
The passes counter, which is the number of I/O operations that Prestoserve passed directly to the actual device driver
The count, which is the sum of the three previous counters
The hit rate percentage, which is the ratio of clean hits and dirty hits to the total count
o The button allows you to display Prestoserve statistics since Prestoserve was last enabled. This is useful when you want to determine
how Prestoserve performs over a long period of time.
o The button allows you to display the Prestoserve statistics for each sample time interval as determined by the slider. If no
Prestoserve activity occurs during the time interval, the numbers in the statistics table are zero. For example, if the slider is set
to 5 and the button is enabled, the statistics table shows the Prestoserve statistics for each interval of five seconds.
o The button allows you to display Prestoserve statistics since you clicked on the button. This button allows you to determine how
Prestoserve performs over a specific period of time that you can set by using the button.
o The button allows you to set a time reference for the Prestoserve statistics table. If you click on the button and, at a later time,
click on the button, the table displays the Prestoserve statistics since you clicked on the button.
Options
-bd color Specifies the color of the window's border (color displays only). The default is black.
-bg color Specifies the color of the window's background (color displays only). The default is white.
-d dispname Specifies the display screen on which displays its window. If the display option is not specified, uses the display
screen specified by your DISPLAY environment variable. The display option has the format hostname:number. Using two
colons (::) instead of one (:) indicates that DECnet is to be used for transport. The default is :0. For more infor-
mation, see
-display dispname This option is the same as the -d option.
-fg color Specifies the color of the text (color displays only). The default is black.
-geometry Specifies the width, length, and location of the window. If the geometry option is not specified, uses default values.
The geometry option has the format =[width][xlength][x][y]. For more information about the screen coordinate system,
see
X Defaults
The application uses the values in the .Xdefaults file when you logged in and uses the appropriate resource specification to customize the
appearance or characteristics of its displayed window. The format for a resource specification in the .Xdefaults file is:
[name*]resource: value
name Specifies the application name or the name string that restricts the resource assignment to that application or to a component of
an application. If this argument is not specified, the resource assignment is globally available to all X applications.
resource Specifies the resource.
value Specifies the value that is to be assigned to the resource.
For more information, see
Because each toolkit-based application can consist of a combination of widgets (for example, push buttons and a scroll bar), you can form
the name string by adding widget class and name identifiers to the string. For further information about adding class and name identi-
fiers, see
For the available name identifiers are:
graph_parent The dialog box containing all of the graphs
dirty_graph The graph displaying dirty buffers
clean_graph The graph displaying clean buffers
inval_graph The graph displaying inval buffers
active_graph The graph displaying active buffers
write_graph The graph displaying cache write history
hit_graph The graph displaying cache hit history
Examples
If you want to change the foreground and background colors of the window and to customize the window's graphs, you can add the following
entries to your .Xdefaults file:
dxpresto*background: darkslategray
dxpresto*foreground: wheat
dxpresto*borderColor: gold
dxpresto*highlight: yellow
dxpresto*graph_parent*borderColor: firebrick
dxpresto*dirty_graph*highlight: gold
dxpresto*dirty_graph*background: black
dxpresto*clean_graph*highlight: gold
dxpresto*clean_graph*background: black
dxpresto*inval_graph*highlight: gold
dxpresto*inval_graph*background: black
dxpresto*active_graph*highlight: gold
dxpresto*active_graph*background: black
dxpresto*write_graph*highlight: gold
dxpresto*write_graph*background: black
dxpresto*hit_graph*highlight: gold
dxpresto*hit_graph*background: black
Files
See Also
presto(4), presto(8), prestoctl_svc(8), X(1X)
Guide to Prestoserve
dxpresto(8)